What We’re Reading: January 6

Do the post-holiday blues have you down? Cheer up! we’re entering another, albeit slightly different, most wonderful time of the year. For college football and NFL fans, the first few weeks of January can be like a delayed holiday present, and if the events of 2018 thus far are any indication, the gridiron may be the gift that keeps on giving. As we head into the CFP National Championship and the first weekend of the NFL Playoffs, we took some time to briefly recap the wild ride that got us to this point.

While head coaches Kirby Smart (Georgia) & Nick Saban (Alabama) will be on opposite sidelines in Atlanta on Monday night, it hasn’t always been this way. Prior to taking the helm at Georgia, Smart served as defensive coordinator for Alabama from 2008 – 2015 (so he knows a thing or two about championship winning teams) and also worked under Saban on the LSU Tigers and Miami Dolphins. Saban has encountered other former assistants-turned-head coaches over the years, and needless to say his record is daunting: he is 11-0 when facing former assistants, beating them by a combined score of 430-111.

Back to the controversy – we’re four years in to the College Football Playoff system, and there are plenty of people questioning its methodology and selection process, starting with UCF, which boasted a perfect regular season and conference title that still left them on the outside looking in. To top it off, they completed their season with a bowl game win over the Auburn Tigers, who delivered the only losses to both Georgia and Alabama in the regular season. While SEC fans feel justified and Ohio State fans feel slighted, there is a range of opinions on the efficacy of the new playoff system – some argue in favor of the four-game playoff for the sake of players, some point out that all of this controversy is nothing new, and others turn to historical data to try to decipher a seeming lack of transparency behind it all.

NFL

It’s Wild Card Weekend! While there is no doubt excitement in the air, interestingly this weekend’s games may not be that thrilling, according to Vegas. In all four matchups – Titans vs. Chiefs, Falcons vs. Rams, Bills vs. Jaguars, and Panthers vs. Saints, the closest spread is the six points between the favored Rams and defending NFC Champion Falcons. The AFC side of the equation is particularly interesting given that the Bills and Titans are both only 9-win teams.